

The origins of rifling are difficult to trace, but some of the earliest European experiments seem to have been carried out during the 15th century. Girdled bullet and twin rifle groove of the Brunswick rifle, mid-19th century In many works of fiction a rifle refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, even if the weapon is not rifled or does not fire solid projectiles (e.g., a "laser rifle"). The term "rifle" is sometimes used to describe larger rifled crew-served weapons firing explosive shells, for example, recoilless rifles and naval rifles. Machine guns are often crewed by more than one soldier the rifle is an individual weapon. Most machine guns fire from an open bolt in order to reduce the danger of "cook-off", while almost all rifles fire from a closed bolt for accuracy. Many machine guns allow the operator to quickly exchange barrels in order to prevent overheating, whereas rifles generally do not. Modern military rifles are fed by magazines, while machine guns are generally belt-fed. Rifles, with their relatively lighter components (which overheat quickly) and smaller capacity magazines, are incapable of sustained automatic fire in the way that machine guns are they trade this capability in favor of increased mobility. Generally, the difference between an automatic rifle and a machine gun comes down to weight, cooling system, and ammunition feed system. A military's light machine guns are typically chambered for the same caliber ammunition as its service rifles. In fact, many light machine guns (such as the Russian RPK) are adaptations of existing automatic rifle designs. Modern automatic rifles overlap to some extent in design and function with machine guns. Only automatic rifles are capable of firing more than one round per trigger squeeze however, some automatic rifles are limited to fixed bursts of two, three, or more rounds per squeeze. Single-shot, bolt-action, and semi-automatic rifles are limited by their designs to fire a single shot for each trigger pull.

Modern rifles are commonly classified as single-shot, bolt-action, semi-automatic, or automatic.

Historically, rifles only fired a single projectile with each squeeze of the trigger.
#BEST TRACE RIFLE MANUAL#
Names of parts of the M1 Garand rifle, World War II era, from US Army field manual Early long rifles were muzzle-loaders firing spherical balls the introduction of breech-loading allowed the use of elongated and aerodynamically efficient bullets, which did not yaw or tumble significantly in flight due to the spin. When the projectile leaves the barrel, this spin persists and lends gyroscopic stability to the projectile due to conservation of angular momentum, increasing accuracy and hence effective range. The raised areas of a barrel's rifling are called lands they make contact with and exert torque on the projectile as it moves down the bore, imparting a spin. The distinct feature that separates a rifle from the earlier smoothbore long guns (e.g., arquebuses, muskets) is the rifling within its barrel. Like all typical firearms, a rifle's projectile ( bullet) is propelled by the contained deflagration of a combustible propellant compound (originally black powder and now nitrocellulose and other smokeless powders), although other propulsive means are used, such as compressed air in air rifles, which are popular for vermin control, small game hunting, competitive target shooting and casual sport shooting ( plinking). By the 20th century, the weapon had become so common that the modern noun rifle is now often used for any long-shaped handheld ranged weapon designed for well-aimed discharge activated by a trigger The term was originally rifled gun, with the verb rifle referring to the early modern machining process of creating groovings with cutting tools. Rifles are used extensively in warfare, law enforcement, hunting, shooting sports, and crime.

In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with both hands and braced firmly against the shooter's shoulder via a buttstock for stability during shooting. A Henry rifle, the first successful lever action repeating rifleĪ rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall.
